11:00 - 13:15
Friday-Panel
Chair/s:
Sarah Wagner
Discussant/s:
Paul Cornelius Bauer
Meeting Room J

Leo Azzollini
The Scar Effects of Unemployment on Electoral Participation: Withdrawal and Mobilisation across European Societies

Sarah Wagner
Ambiguity as Strategy of Radical Left Party Leaders in Western Europe

Giovanni Angioni
Populist Swing: How Italy’s politicians are exploiting inequality rhetoric in their communication strategy

Stefan Müller, Sven-Oliver Proksch
Causes and Electoral Effects of Nostalgic Rhetoric: A Cross-National Analysis of Party Communication

Nelson Santos
Explaining the politicization of EU: Parties and media agendas across time and space
Populist Swing: How Italy’s politicians are exploiting inequality rhetoric in their communication strategy
Giovanni Angioni
London School of Economics and Political Science - LSE

Does politicizing economic inequality impact positively on parties' approval rates? Economic demand-side explanations of populism focus on economic inequality as a predictor of the recent rise of populism. However, the literature has neglected the role of the supply side's discursive strategies in shaping perceptions of inequality and consequently influencing approval rates. This paper studies the interaction of the demand and supply sides, making use of an original dataset of Facebook posts by Italian politicians. Results show that populist parties politicize different nuances of inequality. Furthermore, while established parties are increasingly more populist in their discursive strategies, conservatives have tapped into the inequality rhetoric. Last, exploiting exogenous shocks in the debate over inequality, the paper shows that talking about inequality impacts on parties' approval rates, on top of economic and political factors, depending on politicians' ideological leaning and whether they are in office or not.